Born 150 Years Ago: Marie Kendall (Grandmother of Kay)

July 27, 1873 was the natal day of British stage star Marie Kendall (Mary Ann Florence Holyome, 1873-1964). Five years old when she made her debut in English music halls, she was originally billed as “Baby Chester” — perhaps an indication of her future gender ambiguity, when she specialized in playing the Principal Boy in pantomime, and male impersonation in the halls. The name she finally settled on, “Marie” was perhaps not useful to keeping her memory alive, in a field that already had a Marie Lloyd, Marie Loftus, and Marie Cahill.

In 1895, Kendall married second generation music hall singer Stephen McCarthy. Two of their children Terry and Pat McCarthy, formed a brother-sister music hall dance act. Terry’s daughter was British movie actress Kay Kendall (Justine Kay Kendall McCarthy, 1927-1959), the third wife of Rex Harrison. Kendall starred in such films as Genevieve (1953), The Constant Husband (1955), and Les Girls (1957), and she also appeared on the TV shows of Polly Bergen, Phil Silvers, and others. In early adulthood she dated Sydney Chaplin, son of the world’s greatest comedian. Leukemia took Kay Kendall at the young age of 32. Read much more about her in The Brief, Madcap Life of Kay Kendall by Eve Golden and Kim Elizabeth Kendall, published in 2002.

For more on vaudeville and music hall,please see my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous; and keep an eye out for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.